Australian Bureau of Statistics

These video tutorials will familiarise you with a range of ABS products that are useful in the classroom. You can view transcripts of each segment by clicking on the triangle next to its heading.
On this page:

Transcript:
QuickStats is designed to provide users with a summary of key Census statistics for a specific area and basic comparisons to Australian data. Start at the ABS homepage, click on 'Census Data' on the left hand navigation menu. Find 'QuickStats' in the body of the page and choose which year’s Census data you want displayed. You can search for a location by using any of the above tabs. Select a location from a series of lists or choose a location from a map. In this example we will type in ‘Fairfield’. Click on the ‘Search’ button and a list of all the places that include ‘Fairfield’ have come up. Click on the scroll bar and drag down to view all locations for your search.
If you’re having trouble choosing a location, click on the Information icon above your location search results list. This page contains descriptions of all the geographies available, to help you make your selection. Select your area of interest from the list. We will select 'Fairfield Local Government Area'. Once a selection has been made, a map appears to check it is the wanted area. If you are happy with the selection, click on the 'View QuickStats' button. You will see the major characteristics, such as population and country of birth, are displayed for your chosen area. For each characteristic, comparisons are also made to Australia as whole. A descriptive commentary on the characteristics is available at the bottom of each data table. Note the Information Icons against the Census Topics. Clicking on the icon will take you to further information about a particular Census variable.
QuickStats data are available for geography areas as large as Australia as well as local government areas, state suburbs and postal areas. Please note QuickStats only shows selected Census topics and the top 5 results for that topic. If you’re after more detailed data, you may prefer to use Census Tables instead. QuickStats is a great resource when students are studying their local community. Why not ask students to make a fact sheet or profile of their chosen area, using a QuickStats report.

Transcript:
This product is ideal if you want to visually explore the spatial distribution of a Census topic as it provides thematically mapped Census statistics for your chosen location. MapStats is fast and simple to use and no mapping skills are required.
Start at the ABS homepage and click on 'Census Data' on the left hand navigation menu. Find 'MapStats' in the body of the page and choose which year’s Census data you want displayed. Search for a geographic area by using any of the tabs above the key word search box.
In this example, we will search using the keyword: 'Ballarat'. Click on the ‘Search’ button and a list of all the places that include 'Ballarat' is displayed. Select a specific geographic area from the list of results. In this example we’ve selected Ballarat Local Government Area. A Map of the selected area appears; check it is the wanted area and click on ‘Select Topic’. Notice the default count method is set as Place of usual residence. Place of usual residence is where people usually live, as opposed to place of enumeration which counts people based on where they were on Census night.
Now choose a topic and subtopic for which you want data. Let’s choose Language and Proportion of People who speak a Language other than English. Click on ‘Select Sub Location’. This will determine how the map of your chosen location will be divided. The options depend on the size of the location you have selected. Here we have the choice of a Collection District or Statistical Local Area. Let’s keep it as a Collection District and click on ‘View MapStats’. The map opens in the Summary tab and may take several seconds to load. You are now presented with a map for your chosen geographic area.
The areas are displayed in a range of colours to convey differences in the Census topics being investigated. Please note the legend at the bottom of the page. The percentage breakdown will change depending on the distribution of a particular variable in the area you select. Note that you can also view a copy of the map in Acrobat Reader or Portable Network Graphics (PNG) from the Downloads tab.
The Portable Network format should be used to copy, resize and paste the map into a report. Click on ‘Free Download’ to open file. The best maps to use are Local Government Areas by Collection districts as they display the smallest geographic area data and give a better spatial distribution of a variable. Why not generate a MapStats report for the local government area of your school and ask students to observe a topic of their choice. Can you see this being of use to your students?

Includes: Finding Key National Indicators on the ABS website and a demonstration of how to access source publications.
Duration: 2:25 minutes
Size: 7.01MB Key National Indicators

Segment 9: Consumer Price IndexTranscript:
From the quick links on the left hand navigation menu of the ABS home page, you can find the Consumer Price Index quarterly publication. The publication opens on the Summary tab to present the latest key data for all industry groups including the latest quarterly change in the CPI and movements over a 12 month period. Scroll down to see the key points and overview of CPI movements for the latest quarter. To access previous CPI data, click on the Past and Future Releases tab. This lists all previous issues of the CPI publication, as well as the next expected release date. We will now go back to the Summary tab.
Note other options from the left hand menu include a 'Capital Cities Comparison' and 'Main Contributors to Change'. If you click on 'Main Contributors to Change', you'll be presented with a discussion on each of the CPI groups. All the important information is here, but your students will not be overwhelmed or confused with too much data.You can easily find more detailed data to inform your teaching by going to the Downloads tab. From here you can download the full publication in PDF or view time series data in an Excel spreadsheet. Click on the table you want to view.
For more information about the Consumer Price Index, please view the slideshow ‘CPI: Reality beyond the Textbook’. This is a valuable education resource for the senior economics classroom that was delivered by ABS CPI expert, William Milne. To find the presentation, start from the ABS homepage, click on the ‘Education’ link located on the top navigation menu. You will be taken to the ABS Education Services entry page. Go via the Teacher Area, select ‘Resources for the Classroom’ and then click on ‘Senior Curriculum Resources’. The presentation was delivered at the ABS as part of the 2008 VCTA Comview Conference.

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